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Dia narrowed her eyes at the display above her, an ever-deepening frown dominating her face. After months of living here, she still didn’t trust the train system. While she’d been traumatized as a child by the sprawling complexity, now she merely disliked it for being unnecessarily confusing and convoluted.
Normally, it wasn’t much of a problem. She just had to get on the train that lead to her college, and then back again. She could walk everywhere else.
But today was special.
It had, in truth, not been all that long since Dia had last seen Kanan and Mari. It wasn’t even a year ago that they’d briefly returned to Uchiura for a last performance with Chika and the rest of Aqours in the abandoned school. And it wasn’t like she was in complete isolation- they talked on the phone, and sent emails, and even had video chats when Mari’s schedule permitted.
Still, Dia had missed them terribly. No matter how much she told herself that they were still together under the same sky, she felt their separately keenly. But now, at least, she was getting the chance to reunite with them. Mari and Dia’s breaks from school had finally synced up with one of Kanan’s breaks from her diving instruction course, and to celebrate the occasion, Mari had flown herself and Kanan to Tokyo. It was as over the top as Dia had come to expect from Mari, but she could hardly complain.
And now here she was, waiting impatiently at the airport terminal and watching the arrivals boards instead of the train map. Mari’s plane was getting in first, but it had been delayed. More than once. Every time the clock reached the new time, the ETA went up again.
Finally, after an eternity of waiting, the new time was reached, and didn’t change, and the display flipped to “arriving”. Dia’s excitement climbed, only to be stymied by the long wait as she waited for “disembarking” to appear. By the time people actually started to leave the plane, Dia’s attempt at staying calm was cracking severely under pressure.
Dia scanned the people flooding out of the gate. Given that it was plane from Italy, Mari’s blond hair didn’t stick out in the crowd nearly as much as usual, but it still didn’t take long for Dia to spot her. She had planned to demurely gesture, relying on Mari being on the lookout for her as well, but excitement took over and she found herself flailing her arms wildly to get Mari’s attention. The wide smile on Mari’s face when she spotted her healed any wounds to her pride. Mari sped up, holding her carry-on bag close to her as she made a beeline to Dia.
“Hello, pretty lady!” Mari cried out in English, wrapping Dia in a hug.
Dia hugged her back, feeling warmth seep into her.
It felt like coming home after a long day. Everything was just how Dia had remembered it. The feel of Mari’s hair gently brushing against her face. The faint smell of Mari’s shampoo. Her surprisingly tight grip despite her slender arms.
They stayed like that for a while, savouring each other’s presence. Eventually, Dia pulled back enough to look Mari in the face and smile softly.
“Hello again, Mari,” she said.
Of course, their reunion wasn’t really complete yet. After all, Kanan wasn’t there. Sitting next to each other to wait, Dia laid a hand over Mari’s as they chatted, watching the arrivals board. After so long apart, she was reluctant to give up physical contact so quickly.
Unlike Mari’s plane, Kanan’s plan was right on time. Barely a quarter of an hour after Mari had walked out of the gates, Kanan strode out as well, spotting Mari and Dia before they noticed her and rushing over, dropping her bag to sweep them up in a hug that lifted both of them off the ground.
“Wao! So strong!” Mari said, touching Kanan’s bicep in admiration as Dia struggled to get free.
“K-Kanan, put me down!” she protested indignantly, but Kanan ignored her, laughing.
“It’s so good to see you two again!” Kanan said, setting them down to grin broadly at the two of them.
“You too!” Mari said, wrapping an arm around Kanan and gesturing to Dia.
“It’s good to see you as well, Kanan,” Dia said, smiling and moving in for a slightly more gentle hug. One that involved her feet staying on the ground.
Kanan gladly accepted Dia on left and Mari on her right, putting an arm around each of them and holding them close.
If hugging Mari had been like a coming home after a long day, then the three of them embracing was like coming home to a warm house after a long day in the freezing snow, with someone waiting with hot tea and a kotatsu. Dia felt the stress of university melt away as she relaxed, reunited with the two people she was closest to in the world.
...Ruby was number three. Sorry, Ruby.
After helping carrying luggage out of the airport (Mari had two huge suitcases, whereas Kanan only had a duffel bag), Dia spotted a well dressed man leaning on a car with a sign that said “Ohara.”
“Mari?” Kanan asked, glancing over at her.
“It’s the car I hired to take us to the hotel,” Mari said, waving to the man who nodded and helped Dia pack Mari’s suitcases into the car.
As Dia went to get into the car, she suddenly found an arm blocking her.
“Oh no, Dia,” Mari said. “You need to go home, not come with us. You need to go get dressed up for the fancy dinner we’re going to!”
“Fancy dinner?” Dia asked.
“Yes! I booked us a table at a nice restaurant.”
Kanan glanced at her skeptically from the backseat.
“Isn’t Italy nine hours behind Japan?” she asked. “Do you really have the energy for going out to dinner?”
“It’s only eight hours!” Mari cheerfully responded, waving off their concern. “I’m fine, and we have to celebrate being together again!”
“I didn’t really bring anything fancy…” Kanan’s next complaint was obviously anticipated, as Mari smirked.
“I know. I have clothes for you,” she said, before turning to Dia. “But I know I can count on Dia to have something nice. Right Dia?”
And so, before Dia even fully knew what was happening, Kanan and Mari were driving away and she was standing there holding a slip of paper with a name and address written on it.
So she’d gone home, and gotten dressed up, and once again navigated the trains to arrive at the address she’d been given.
The problem was that while Dia was sure that Mari’s idea of “dressing up nice” was some stunning dress, that wasn’t who Dia was. There weren’t any beautiful ballgowns or sleek black form fitting slips in her closet. What was there was a kimono. A black kimono, to be specific, with red and white flowers.
Dia felt the stares on her the entire time she was on the train. It was hardly surprising. This was the city, after all, not Uchiura. Everyone around her was in skirts, suits, or trendy looking pants. Not a stuffy looking traditional kimono. She stuck out like a sore thumb.
But one way or another, she reached the restaurant. Letting her breath out in a long sigh, Dia looked at the building in front of her.
No need to double check the address on the paper- it was unmistakably the restaurant she was looking for in front of her. It looked like something out of a European film, with an understated but comfortably large sign in a decidedly foreign language. If it was English, Dia didn’t know the words, and she would be even more lost if it was anything else. Perhaps Mari knew.
Pushing open the door, she found the interior to be surprisingly… comfortable. She’d expected some kind of grand ballroom, with high ceilings and marble everywhere, but it seemed like there was barely a surface that wasn’t carpeted and there was quiet music playing as a waiter came up to her an enquired if she had a reservation.
“I’m meeting Mari Ohara,” she said, and the waiter briefly checked the device in his hand before nodding.
“Right this way, ma’am,” he said, striding off down a hallway as Dia followed behind, admiring the art hung on the walls.
The dining room was a little larger than the entrance, but still far from huge, and rather than echoing sounds of voices, the conversation seemed to be a low murmur that faded into the padded walls. The lighting was dim, supplemented by candles. It was, Dia had to admit, very intimate. A far cry from the imposing formality she’d expected.
It didn’t take long for her to spot Mari and Kanan, and they spotted her just as quickly and rose to greet her, giving Dia a view on just what “dressing up” had meant for the two of them.
Mari was dressed more or less how Dia had expected. An amazing blue dress that sparkled like it was sewed out of sequins, tightly hugging her hips with a daring slit in the side that went very high up her leg, and a neckline that made Dia turn a little red, especially with the necklace that seemed specifically designed to draw the eye to her deep cleavage.
Kanan, though, was the real surprise. Since Mari had picked out her outfit, Dia had expected either a matching dress, or Kanan to be dressed up like a butler. That seemed like the sort of like Mari might like. Instead, Kanan was wearing loose, billowing white pants with an asymmetrical black top, the hem ending at her waist on one side and gradually lengthening to mid-thigh on the other side. It suited her surprisingly well.
“Ooh, look, Kanan, it’s a traditional Japanese beauty! See, it was worth the trip all the way here,” Mari teased, hugging Dia.
“You look good, Dia,” Kanan said, smiling as she took her turn to embrace Dia quickly.
“So do you two,” Dia said, pulling back to admire their outfits again.
“Of course!” Mari boasted. “Italy is the fashion capital of the world, you know!”
The three of them took their seats and Dia scanned the menu contemplatively. There was… not a lot on the menu that she recognised. Even when there were Japanese names, they might as well have been in the same western language that the other items were in.
“Well, Mari,” Kanan said, setting down her menu. “Since I’m pretty sure you’re the only one who can read the menu, any recommendations?”
“Hmmm…” Mari glanced over at the two of them. “I think I can come up with something.”
When the waiter returned, Mari spoke to him unintelligibly, pointing to Dia and Kanan at some points, until he nodded and left again. Hopefully, she’d ordered food. Dia trusted her to know her tastes by this point.
More or less.
“So how are you fitting in over in Italy?” Kanan asked, seizing the opportunity to steal the initiative from Mari.
“I’ve been expelled!” Mari announced, and then winked when she saw the look of horror on Dia’s face. “It’s joke. Everything is molto bene, very good.”
Only Mari would manage three languages in one sentence.
“Classes aren’t that hard, and I don’t have much trouble with the language.”
“How are you getting on with the people?” Dia asked, and Mari looked a little troubled before burying it with a smile.
“I’m an idol, of course everyone loves me!” she said, winking again. Dia wasn’t impressed, and a quick glance at Kanan’s face confirmed that they were thinking the same thing.
“Mari…” Dia said.
Mari sighed, and when she spoke again her accent had vanished, like it always did when she was being serious.
“There’s a bit of a cultural gap. I know some other students, but…” she trailed off, but Dia could fill in the rest of the sentence easily enough. No real close friends.
“Poor lonely Mari,” Kanan teased, poking Mari’s cheek. “No wonder you were so eager to meet up as soon as I told you I had time off.”
Mari puffed out her cheeks in annoyance. “What a cruel accusation.”
“What about you, Kanan? You didn’t turn down the invitation,” Dia said.
Kanan laughed. “I have a few friends, mostly other divers. Australian girls are pretty crazy sometimes. The drinking age is lower, so a lot of us go out drinking on weekends, and the stuff some of them get up to...” she shook her head.
“How about your studies?” Dia asked, and Kanan shrugged.
“I think I’m doing okay,” she said. “We haven’t had a lot of real theory tests, but I do solidly on the practicals.”
“What about the language?” Mari asked slyly, and Kanan flushed.
“...I get by,” she said evasively.
“Oh? Do you converse eloquently with your peers and your proctors alike? Please, elucidate your compatriots, tell us all about your remarkable loquaciousness,” Mari purred in English, and Kanan fidgeted nervously.
“...Yes?” she hazarded, and Mari laughed.
“Oh come on,” Kanan said, frowning. “I speak it well enough to interact with people, mostly.”
“Mostly?” Dia said, raising an eyebrow.
“What about you, Dia?” Kanan said, changing the subject without a hint of subtlety.
“Her Japanese is perfect, I’m sure she can interact with people. Mostly.”.
Kanan rolled her eyes. “How are classes going?” she clarified.
“Well enough,” Dia said primly. She was scoring quite high so far, but there was always room for improvement. After all, didn’t 90% just mean you didn’t understand one in ten parts of the course? Still, a little pride wouldn’t hurt. “I believe I’m in the top ten scorers in most if not all of my classes.”
“As expected of Dia,” Kanan said, grinning. “Still, who would have guessed you’d go for a degree in education?”
“I-I don’t think it’s that strange,” Dia protested.
“I guess it’s not as weird as Mari doing it…” Kanan said,
“Oh? Is it that surprising? I was already getting job offers to be director even without qualifications, you know?” Mari said, taking a sip of her drink. “Why not follow my talents?”
Her talents… Dia laughed for a moment, and Kanan and Mari glanced at her quizzically.
“Sorry,” Dia said, smiling. “It’s just that… none of us ended up doing anything in the entertainment industry. After all that fuss with Aqours, and Mari almost not going to study abroad because of it, and all the hard work we put in to singing, and dancing, and all of it… none of us are using those talents.”
“It was still worth it, though,” Kanan said, her smile a little wistful. “I’m glad we did it.”
“Me too,” Dia said.
“Of course!” Mari said cheerfully. “Even if we never do anything as idols again, it was still a beautiful shining highschool life!”
It would have been hard to believe that they’d be like this two years ago. When Aqours seemed like a broken dream that would only ever be a painful reminder to Dia of what she’d lost. When Mari was a friend she’d pushed away in an attempt to help her. When she’d lost her taste for idols completely. But now, here she was with Kanan and Mari, and their bond was stronger than ever. And Aqours wasn’t a failure that haunted her, it was a miracle success that she’d attained with all her wonderful friends.
“So Dia,” Mari said, and there was another ominously playful expression on her face. “We both answered how our social lives are going. How about you?”
“Pretty well,” Dia said, keeping her voice level and taking a sip of water calmly. “I have a boyfriend now.”
Kanan dropped the spoon she’d been playing with with a clatter and stared, and Mari’s eyes were as wide as saucers as her mouth fell open in shock.
“It’s joke,” Dia said, smiling.
Kanan let out a frustrated sigh and hit her head on the table, and Mari burst out laughing loud enough to draw a few stares.
“Bene, bene!” she said, clapping. “Who knew you could deliver a joke like that with a straight face?”
“It’s about time someone gave you a little of your own medicine.”
“Ooh, scary,” Mari said, drawing back dramatically. “But you’re changing the subject, Dia~!”
Drat. Dia was hoping Mari wouldn’t notice that.
“I-I don’t know what you mean,” she said, looking away.
“You’re scratching your beauty mark…” Kanan said, and Dia glanced down at her face. She was.
“Ah… when do you think the food will get here?” Dia asked, pulling her hand away glancing around.
“Dia…” Mari said, her voice half pitying and half exasperated.
“I speak to plenty of other students!” Dia said defensively. “But… well…”
“They’re all intimated by you?” Kanan guessed.
“They treat you like a teacher, not a classmate?” Mari added.
Dia sighed. The fact of the matter was, they were right. It wasn’t that she was unfriendly, or didn’t try to talk to people, but she was vocal in group work and very serious about working, and before she knew it everyone respected her rather than liking her.
“I have one or two new acquaintances, at least,” she said. “But maybe Mari wasn’t the only one looking forward to seeing friends again.”
“What am I going to do with you two, seriously…” Kanan said, shaking her head.
“Are you one to talk, Kanan?” Dia said, a severe look on her face. “I hope you realize I won’t be able to tutor you for diving classes.”
“I know, I know…”
Conversations always came easily to the three of them. Ever since they were children, they could talk all night about anything. Before Dia knew it, the food had arrived, right as Kanan was telling a story about a guy who’d tried to hit on her despite the two of them barely understanding anything the other said.
It turned out that Mari had been actually ordering from the waiter after all. Mari had ordered some kind of soup for herself, crab for Kanan, and for Dia she’d ordered what seemed to be some kind of pasta.
Seeing Dia’s quizzical look, Mari shrugged.
“It’s probably not as good as in Italy, but it should still be great!” she said, taking a spoonful of her soup. “I bet you’ll like it.”
Dia took an experimental bite and her eyes widened. Normally, she wasn’t the biggest fan of western food, but this…
“It’s delicious,” she said, taking another bite.
“Ah ha! I knew you’d like vecchia napoli, Dia!” Mari said triumphantly.
“And you already knew I like crab,” Kanan said, cracking open a leg. “Guess you have us figured out.”
“Yes~!” Mari said, smiling.
Dia couldn’t say she much minded being predictable.
“So Mari, what were you saying earlier about coffee in Italy?”
It was a long time after they finished that they finally left the restaurant.
After their main course, they’d been too full for dessert, but Mari had insisted they try the coffee there (a fact that surely had nothing to do with the fact that she was starting to nod off) and they’d stayed for hours talking and sipping delicately before Dia noticed the time and insisted that they not take up the table any longer. Not that the wait staff probably minded, given the tip that Mari left.
Of course, none of them really wanted to part ways just yet. So they continued to chat as they walked down the crowded Tokyo streets towards Mari and Kanan’s hotel. And as Dia saw them to their room. And, well, at that point, it wasn’t any real surprise when Mari and Kanan invited her in.
It was a nice room, of course. Mari wouldn’t have picked some dicey motel. Still, Dia took a moment to admire it, and the conversation lulled as she did.
That was when Kanan spoke up.
“I still can’t believe you made that joke about having a boyfriend,” she said with a sigh, collapsing backwards onto the huge bed. There was only one bed in the room, but it was definitely big enough for two people. There was probably enough for room for four people, really.
“Ah, that feels so much better...” Mari purred, coming out of the bathroom. Her hair, which had been up in a complicated looking updo, was now loose and down, brushed out but still a little frizzy from being held up so long.
“I don’t see why having a boyfriend is so unbelievable,” Dia said, slightly reproachfully as she glared down at Kanan. “I might really go and get one someday, you know,”
“Don’t,” Mari said, and suddenly she was behind Dia, resting her chin on her shoulder and wrapping her arms gently around her.
“Mari?” Dia asked quizzically.
“Stay with us instead.”
Kanan sat up, looking interested. Interested, but tense. Clearly, she was hearing some message in those words that Dia wasn’t.
“What do you mean?” she said carefully, with the tone of someone who wanted to someone else to say what they were thinking before they admitted anything.
Mari let go of Dia and stepped back, letting Dia turn to face her and raise an eyebrow. Mari looked serious.
“Isn’t it obvious?” she asked. “Didn’t we say that we were going to stay together forever? And now we’ve met again, and gone on a lovely date, and yet Dia is talking about going out with someone else, someday.”
Dia paused. Had Mari… been thinking of that dinner together as a date? Had Kanan?
Had she thought it that way herself?
“Do you mean…?” Dia asked carefully, now just as cagey as Kanan. Kanan must have come to the same conclusion as her
“Yes.” Mari took a deep breath and looked between the two of them seriously. “Dia… Kanan.... will you go out with me?”
Dia’s mouth fell open in shock. Even if she’d started to get an idea of where this conversation was going, she definitely hadn’t expected this. Mari was not only confessing to her, but confessing to her and Kanan at the same time?
Dia glanced over at Kanan, who was sitting silently with an unreadable expression.
“...Both of us?” Dia asked, barely able to believe her ears.
“Yes,” Mari said. “Both of you.”
“We can’t all date,” Kanan said, but her voice didn’t have much conviction in it. She was almost asking it as a question.
“Says who?” Mari said fiercely. “I’ll disown whatever narrow-minded god says that.”
Dia laughed. “You can’t just keep threatening to disown god every time you don’t like something.”
Mari smiled, but then her face turned serious again. “I love both of you more than anyone else. And my feelings are romantic. We can’t get married here anyway, so why does it matter if our relationship is unusual? I know how I feel, and what I want.”
Dia sat down on the bed heavily, at a loss for words. Her head hurt. What were her feelings? Of course she always wanted to be with Kanan and Mari, but… romantic feelings?
Mari’s voice had been firm, and she stood resolutely, but Dia noticed that she was clasping her hands to stop them shaking. It was just like her. She was unexpected fragile, sometimes. It made something stir in her heart. But before she could consider what that meant, Kanan spoke up.
“Okay,” Kanan said, sitting up from the bed.
“Okay?” Dia repeated, confused.
“I’ll go out with you, Mari,” Kanan said, standing and walking over to Mari’s side, taking one of her hands gently.
“Well, that’s lovely,” Dia said. “The two of you can-”
“And I’d like to go out with you too, Dia,” Kanan added.
Dia sighed.
“Honestly, the two of you…” she grumbled. “Can’t you just… pick one?”
“Can you?” Mari challenged.
Dia stared back at her.
There was a moment of tense silence before Dia let out another sigh, longer and more resigned. “You two are a terrible influence on me,” she said, smiling, standing up to take one of Mari’s hands and one of Kanan’s. “Honestly, how are we supposed to explain this to anyone?”
“I’m sure Ruby will understand,” Kanan said.
“And if she doesn’t-”
“I’m not going to disown my sister, Mari.”
That night, they didn’t do anything but talk. They didn’t kiss. They didn’t discuss what romantic feelings meant to them. They weren’t quite there yet. But that was fine. They had plenty of time to discuss it. Plenty of time to move at their own pace.
After all, they were going to be together forever.